Vanquishing A Viking

by Nancy Dillman

  The air crackled with electricity, and a horrific bang nearly blew out her ear drums as a lightning bolt struck a nearby tree. Whinnying in terror, the horses strained to pull loose their reins.

  Within seconds, a brilliant light flashed at the edge of her vision. Her head snapped around.

  There it was! Suspended in the air as if by magic - a swirling whirlpool of incandescent light.

  “Yes,” she shouted. “Come with me, both of you.” She tugged on Stein's leather belt. “Come with me! Now!” She tried to move him toward the light, but he was an immovable mountain.

  Ulla looked at her like she was nuts.

  Stein angled his head toward the approaching men. “I must fight. I cannot run away.”

  She waved her hand toward the vortex. “You must live, you big knucklehead. And the only way that’s going to happen is if you come with me.” She tugged again. “For once in your life, would you stop arguing with me and listen!”

  He finally noticed the vortex, and his eyes rounded in fear and wonder. “What in Thor’s name is that?”

  “May the gods spare us,” cried Ulla, clutching her throat.

  “That’s my light,” she shouted. “It’s our ticket out of here. Now follow me!”

  “Stop, coward, and fight!” Grima’s voice boomed through the din of the howling storm.

  Stein planted his feet, his sword at the ready.

  “Don’t be a fool,” Esme shouted. “That light will save us.”

  “What is happening?” Ulla cried.

  Esme pulled on his tunic. “Stein, do you trust me or not?”

  Stein’s brow wrinkled with worry, then smoothed. “I don’t know what to make of you, little sorceress, but I do trust you.”

  “Good. Then let’s get the hell out of here.” She took his hand and Ulla’s.

  “They’re coming,” Ulla shouted, her eyes wild with fear.

  “Stop, coward!” Grima’s voice exploded through the gloom as he and his men charged through the underbrush.

  Esme studied Stein's face, worried he would succumb to his warrior nature and be unable to resist Grima's challenge. To her surprise, he seemed to understand what he had to do.

  “Come on!” He seized Ulla's and Esme's hands and dragged them toward the light. “Baldur, Sunna, go home!” he shouted to the horses, who pulled themselves free and ran like the wind in the direction they’d come.

  Speeding toward the vortex, Esme, Ulla and Stein stumbled over brush and downed branches, tearing their clothes on thorns and brambles.

  “I have so much more to tell you,” she shouted at the top of her lungs.

  “I thought you might,” he yelled back.

  “You’ll like it where we’re going.”

  “Good. Will I see wonders?”

  "More than you can imagine!"

  Looming before them was the time portal, its luminescence swirling like a hundred galaxies, both frightening and friendly.

  They ran headlong into the dazzling pinwheel.

  “Geronimo!” Esme shouted as the spinning brilliance enveloped them.

  She heard Stein’s faint voice ricochet in the dark. “Must you always speak in riddles?”

  Ulla’s sparkling laughter echoed inside Esme's brain, and she smiled. She knew they’d be okay. The time portal would take them where they needed to go, and she and Stein would be together forever.

  There’d always be fireworks between them, but it would bond them and season their love like fine white pepper.

  She wouldn’t have it any other way.

  CHAPTER 20

  Asgard, Minnesota, Five Years Later

  Esme Magnuson snuggled deeper under the covers of her comfy, warm bed. She took a deep breath and exhaled, long and slow. She was happy, and all was well in her world. She silently thanked the Universe for the zillionth time.

  Her little trip to the past had been a godsend, changing her life and her father’s in the best way possible. It had also given Stein and his mother the opportunity to start afresh in a new world and with a new family, one where relationships were far less complicated.

  Stein and Ulla transitioned quite easily to their new lives in the twenty-first century. During their first few months, they were puzzled by just about everything, but they were diligent students, quickly embracing modern technology, learning English, and soaking up American culture. Given the speed with which they adapted to the fast pace of modern life, no one would have suspected they were fugitives from another century.

  Explaining them to her father had been something of a problem of course but, after he’d recovered from the happy shock of her sudden reappearance, he accepted them into the Pederson household with open arms. He told everyone Ulla and Stein were distant cousins from a remote part of Norway, which pretty much explained away their initial lack of English and naiveté about modern life.

  As for Thorwald Ericson’s map, it saved her father’s life. Daddy’s face had positively glowed when she’d shown him the crude drawing, and that moment was the turning point in his fight with cancer. Well, that and the fact he fell head over heels in love with Ulla. No one was surprised when they wed less than a year later in a double ceremony with Esme and Stein.

  With his cancer in remission, he led a small archeological dig to the Québec countryside and found more evidence to support his theory of Viking settlement. He even found the burial mound of a long-dead Viking, whose bones were carbon-dated to the eleventh century. Of course he couldn't prove it was Thorwald Ericson's grave, but Esme knew it was. Daddy published his findings and, after the map was authenticated, he was invited to join the Scandinavian Studies department at the University of Minnesota.

  As for Stein, well, the most amazing thing happened. Football became an instant passion and, because of his size and agility, he was invited to play pick-up games with some of the Asgard College students, becoming quite the local gridiron celebrity. He planned to try out for the Minnesota Vikings during one of their open auditions, but a knee injury sidelined him for good. Instead, he became the head football coach of the local high school team, taking the Asgard Vikings all the way to their first state championship.

  Things turned out well for Esme too. Instead of returning to her library job, she took weaving workshops and apprenticed herself to Minnesota’s leading Scandinavian weaver. As her skills grew, she sold her work at art fairs and galleries around the state, becoming nearly as well-known as her mentor. Her recent exhibition of Norwegian rutevev tapestry weaving at the John Steven’s Gallery in Minneapolis had been a financial and critical success, leading to an invitation to participate in a textile design exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City.

  She sat up and stretched. Yes, it was a lovely Sunday morning, and it was good to be alive. Their adorable kids, five-year old Erik and two-year old Greta, were spending the weekend with her dad and Ulla in Minneapolis, gifting Esme and Stein with some much-needed alone time.

  She cocked her ear and giggled. Her gorgeous hunk of a husband was humming in the shower. Soon he’d walk through the door, all six feet six inches of him, naked and eager to carry her off to sexual Valhalla.

  “Meow...” mewled Mr. Darcy. He jumped up on the bed and settled down on top of the covers. She stroked his back in long, slow caresses. “Now, Darce, you’re going to have to vamoose, because any minute now my sexy hubby is going to waltz in here and have his way with me.”

  The bathroom door opened and Stein sauntered into the bedroom in all his glorious and aroused masculine nakedness.

  “Not bad for someone who's over a thousand years old, ” she teased.

  “Are you referring to my over-sized, engorged phallus,” he asked, stroking said piece of equipment, “or my still-hard abs?”

  “Both.” She playfully stuck out her tongue at him. “Now, come here.”

  He crawled onto the bed like a stalking jaguar, displacing Mr. Darcy, who jumped on the floor and high-tailed it to the over-stuffed chair next to the w
indow.

  She threw back the bed covers. “Come on in, big boy.”

  He chuckled as he settled in beside her. “The house is so quiet without the kids,” he said, pulling her into his arms.

  She loved his slightly accented English. Just another thing that made him the sexiest man alive.

  “I’ll say. Now I can scream my head off without worrying they’ll dial 911.” She nestled against him, happy and content. “It’s hard to remember what it was like before we had children.”

  “Yes, but I wouldn’t trade them for the world.” He rubbed his nose in her hair. “You know, it’s even harder to remember what life was like without you.”

  She poked him in the ribs. “I hope that’s not a complaint.”

  “Hey,” he laughed. “You know it isn’t. I wouldn’t go back to my old life for anything.”

  “No regrets?”

  “None. You and the kids mean everything to me. Thank you, Esme, for giving me all that a man could want.”

  She cupped the back of his neck and drew his mouth close to hers. “I love it when you talk dirty.” She kissed him tenderly.

  He immediately deepened the kiss, pressing his tongue into her mouth. Her nipples hardened instantly, primed for his touch.

  “Now lie back and relax. I’m going to pillage and plunder you,” he said, slipping the straps of her silky nightgown off her shoulders.

  As she snuggled into the pillows, he lowered her gown, exposing her breasts. Taking a hard peak in his mouth, he suckled her relentlessly.

  “You know exactly what to do, don’t you?”

  “Mmm...” he mumbled into her breast.

  “You can vanquish me any time, my handsome Viking.”

  He lifted his head and laughed. “Thank you, but it is you who have truly vanquished me.”

  Her heart surged with love. “You’ve got that right.”

  THE END

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Nancy Dillman has led a life almost as exciting as her romance novel heroines. She spent over a decade working in the intelligence business during the Cold War, after which she morphed into a glass artist, selling her art at fairs throughout the Midwest. In the early 1990's, tiring of the travel, she and her husband renovated a 136-year old bank building in downtown Baraboo, Wisconsin, and opened a successful art gallery, which she sold in 2006. They are currently rehabilitating a second old building in the same neighborhood and plan to open a natural foods grocery and deli. A proud "cheesehead" and Green Bay Packers fan, she lives with her husband in the Baraboo Hills of south central Wisconsin, one of the oldest and most beautiful landforms on the planet.

  DISCOVER OTHER BOOKS BY NANCY DILLMAN AT AMAZON.COM:

  Redeeming a Rogue

  Enticing a Templar